USA - the pro league

[roopy]

The USA administration team have always thought big.

It is no secret that their long term goal is to have a multi city pro league up and running in the US.

They have people like Robert Balachandran (a senior corporate accountant with a long history of working on civil projects), Rich Portale who is a corporate lawyer, and David Nui who has been working his bum off for years to get league up and running. In short, they have a great team to put together a pro league.

IMO the pro league in the US will see our sport take a quantum leap into the future. The pro league will use players from all round the world including the pacific islands, russia, and the big three countries as well - which will mean an explosion of fulltime pros who can be called on to play test footy.

Everyone said the test match in the US would never happen, but it is about to come off, and the pro league must be one step closer now because of it. It might still be 10 years away, but this is the biggest thing on the horizen for league at the moment - and good on the ARL for giving league some support in the US.

 

[DIEHARD]

Ah the USA Pro League....that allusive holy grail. :lol:

I guess we will have to wait and see in the aftermath of the test, well it isn't really a test is it, USA aren't a test nation, but anyway.

At least Lachlan Murdoch has an interest in RL in the USA. What more could you hope for?

 

[Copa]

Best of luck to them.

It won't happen overnight....... but in time... who knows? I hope they are succesful

 

[dimitri]

i agree

it would be great to have a usa pro league


it would also be good to have some pacific islanders, americans, russians and europeans, playing in it which might boost many TEST teams

 

[bulldogs = #1]

All i know is the fact that its going to be live in america on a huge network like fox IRL cannot lose.

Rugby league can win if they get the players to not play there best and only beat america by 14-16 points instead of 60..

 

[God-King Dean]

I hope they succeed as well. Getting the U.S into Rugby League would set off the whole world into the best sport in the world.

Too bad if they bought all our players though #-o

 

[Alan Shore]

It's great that so many passionate people are working hard together to make US RL a reality.

 

[Copa]

THink about it for a bit... It need only be a succesful small niche sport in the US to be really good. They have 300 million people.... NSW has around 5 million.

 

[God-King Dean]

THink about it for a bit... It need only be a succesful small niche sport in the US to be really good. They have 300 million people.... NSW has around 5 million.

True, but it would prolly be deemed successful judgeing by ratio of people who watch/play Rugby League to other sports in the U.S

But it would be unrealistic to think it would be bigger than their taditional sports eg. NFL, Baseball etc

 

[Copa]

It would be succesful if it becomes self-sustainable and the national team can put up a fight on the field.


It doesn't just let americans know about League,,,, it lets the league world know about League in the USA

 

[yakstorm]

If they could get 1% of the population into League (so 3 million people) that would be a big enough success to boost the entire League world.

That said, I really do worry about the infastructure that will hold up the Pro-League. At the moment its like they are putting up the house before laying the concrete slab...they will be fine provided it doesn't rain, but if it does the whole thing will wash away. Hopefully they have a lot of plans to get the junior systems and even club retainment (clubs at the moment are dependent totally on a handful of people, and if they leave or move the club either dies or relocates) systems in place.

 

[DIEHARD]

Well said yakstorm.

You must build brick by brick. And unfortunately, I look at the AMNRL and don't see too much.

 

[Jeffles]

You've artificially inflated soem egos there roopy but I take on board what you said.

A lot of people see the USA as a NECESSARY part of RL's global growth due to their economic strength. I disagree. While it would be good to have a semi pro or pro league, the absence of one shouldn't stop RL from flourishing at an international level. Look at cricket. The USA plays but has no "pro league" yet you couldn't accuse cricket of being small fry.

 

[Tomahawk]

Jeffles;

You are right on what you say. However, if RL would go pro in the US it will penifit RL throughout the world more then it would in any other country.

Examble

RL goes pro in the US you will have American fans that will want to watch the NRL and the state of orgin. Do you think if RL went pro in russia youwould get the same audiance wanting to watch the NRL in Russia? I think not.

There are more penifets if a pro league starts in the US then if it would start anywere else in the world.

Tomahawk

 

[Jeffles]

Couldn't agree more Tomahawk. It's just the whole NECESSITY about the USA that people push (ie. YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT THEM) that I dispute. It gets people too worked up on the success or otherwise of ONE venture.

 

[Tomahawk]

Jeffles;

I can say of RL was played before the game was brought to the states, an the game will still be played if it does not succeed in the states. However, it would do RL better if it succeed in the states then anywhere else.

Tomahawk

 

[strong_latte]

Jeffles;

You are right on what you say. However, if RL would go pro in the US it will penifit RL throughout the world more then it would in any other country.

Examble

RL goes pro in the US you will have American fans that will want to watch the NRL and the state of orgin. Do you think if RL went pro in russia youwould get the same audiance wanting to watch the NRL in Russia? I think not.

There are more penifets if a pro league starts in the US then if it would start anywere else in the world.

Tomahawk

As much as I hate to say it, that would have to be true. As you say television rights would be a hug asset to the game, not to mention the possibility of it infiltrating the video game market via EA etc (for those who are interested at least).

 

[Tomahawk]

Strong latte;

Living in American i can tell you that the American people loves sports. Even more they like hard hitting sports such as football,hockey, and boxing. When we are playing at Glen Mills and there is a big hit they kids go crazy. The American people will love RL. I thik if it is done right it could succeed. However, it is going to take alot of money.

I also think that the American athletic will eventually make a great RL player. However, it is going to take 3-5 years for them to really learn the game. Thise is were we are going to need players with experience from other countries. It will be a huge oppertunity for some individuals.

Finally, American football, baseball,and basketball star players make millions of more dollars then any top rugby player in the world. If the sport can ever reach the same level as baseball, basketball, for football that oppertunity far exceeds any other.

Two more exambles why you want RL to succeed in the US. And there are only more to think of.

Tomahawk

 

[yakstorm]

RL goes pro in the US you will have American fans that will want to watch the NRL and the state of orgin. Do you think if RL went pro in russia youwould get the same audiance wanting to watch the NRL in Russia? I think not.

There are more penifets if a pro league starts in the US then if it would start anywere else in the world.

I'd like to see you justify that view acctually, American's have shown many times in the past that they like to watch American's playing the sport rather than other competitions, which of course is not a uncomon factor in many nations, including Australia, Britain and New Zealand.

I personally feel if US went pro with Rugby League, there would be minimal benefit for the NRL. You only have to go and ask many League fans in Australia and they would struggle to name any more than two British clubs (if they could name any) and most don't even know there are competitions like Queensland Cup and NSWRL Premier League.

Most fans are generally 'club centric' and that would happen again in the USA. Of course you will get the few who will have a more open view of the code, such as those on this part of the forum, who will take an interest in other competitions, but there is no guarentee that will be many.

The advantage Russia has over the USA, is it is a lot more embracing in the code relative to America. This is helped cause Russia does not have a saturated sports market, USA does. Russia has also shown already with the small amounts of either British Super League or NRL that has made it onto Russian TV (only small amounts and not on regulary) has acctually outrated that of the USA both in terms of viewing audience and % of possible audience.

Another advantage Russia has over the USA if both went professional in the next few years is Russia acctually has a player base big enough to pull together such a competition with only a minimal need to draw upon players from established competitions. USA at the moment don't have the numbers so they will either need to get them from Union or buy them somewhere else in the world.

 

[simostorm]

Us pro league, wont happen for another 50 years.